Diango Hernández (Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, 1970. Lives and works in Düsseldorf) says about the genesis of his works, which reflect his childhood and youth in socialist Cuba as well as his experience as a migrant. The book Theoretical Beach combines conceptual considerations with tropical sensuality, their union is the creative matrix for the artist’s work in a variety of media (sculpture, installation, mural, painting, and drawing), which intertwines an exploration of personal experiences and larger questions of memory, the search for an identity, longing, translation, and what it means to leave one place and arrive in another with critical reflections on the history of art. Produced in close collaboration with the artist, Theoretical Beach documents four of his most recent exhibitions in 2015, 2016 (Kunsthalle Münster. MOSTYN, Wales. K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Düsseldorf. Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen). The respective curators, Marcus Lütkemeyer, Alfredo Cramerotti, Susanne Meyer-Büser, and Stefanie Kreuzer, as well as Timotheus Vermeulen have contributed essays analyzing the artist’s work, a text by Diango Hernández himself and a preface by Markus Heinzelmann round out the volume.

Diango Hernández began his artistic practice in Cuba in 1994 as a co-founder of Ordo Amoris Cabinet, a group of artists and designers who focused on invented solutions for home design objects to compensate for a permanent shortage of materials and goods. The artist moved to Europe in 2003 and currently lives and works in Düsseldorf. His work was the subject of solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle, Basel (2006) and the Neuer Aachener Kunstverein (2007). His work was exhibited in the Arsenale as part of the 51st Venice Biennale and the Biennale of Sydney and the São Paulo Biennial, both in 2006. His work was the subject of a critically acclaimed exhibition of new work, “Losing You Tonight,” at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen (2009) and in 2010 two installations were included in “The New Décor” at the Hayward Gallery, London. A survey exhibition of his work took place at Museo D’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (MART) in Rovereto in 2011-12. In 2013, Marlborough Contemporary, London presented a solo exhibition of his work “The New Man and the New Woman.” His work was the subject of a solo exhibition “Socialist Nature” in 2014 at Landesgalerie, Linz. Hernández has had solo exhibitions at Marlborough Contemporary, London and the Kunsthalle Munster in 2015. In 2016, a solo exhibition of Hernández’s work, titled “Theoretical Beach,” took place at the Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen.